Success Stories

OpenSource, Inc., has had a long and productive relationship with LexisNexis Group and its publisher Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., a leading provider of analytical legal research information in print, CD-ROM, and via the Internet. Matthew Bender's authoritative, comprehensive, and accurate legal information spans every major practice area and is authored by leading experts in the legal community. The company offers more than 1,500 publications in print and electronic formats to subscribers in more than 160 countries.

OpenSource personnel have put their data-conversion and data-management expertise to work on a variety of Matthew Bender projects, most recently developing a program to convert Matthew Bender's treatise data for use on both the LexisNexis dial-up legal research system and lexis.com®, the company's flagship Web-based legal service. Prior to this effort, OpenSource played a key role in helping Matthew Bender to extract treatise and primary source data from multiple formats and platforms and to convert that data to generate a uniform and cohesive electronic product.

In addition to these data-conversion initiatives, OpenSource has also developed tools to assist in the processing and maintenance of Matthew Bender data. For example, automated quality-control tools that make use of Web technology allow editors to see at a glance a list of production problems in a publication or to monitor the structure of an entire publication even before it has gone through the production cycle. OpenSource's efforts helped Matthew Bender reduce production costs and shorten time to market while at the same time improving quality and consistency in production.

"We looked at several contract analysis solutions and found OpenSourceCM to be the best product for our needs. It is smart software that really understands agreements. Unlike other products, it highlights and links terms, amendments and references even when a document was authored in another system. It was the only solution we found that could analyze both third-party paper based agreements and internally drafted materials as a collection.

We recently integrated our fax with e-mail and also converted all our copiers into digital scanners. With these tools and OpenSourceCM, our lawyers can convert a collection of disparate paper and electronic documents into an intelligent electronic deal folder in minutes."

For over 50 years Williams-Sonoma has been the America's premier retailer of specialty home furnishings including Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and West Elm. With over 500 stores, eight catalogs, three ecommerce websites and 1,000's of vendors, managing contracts is a critical issue. Williams-Sonoma was looking for a solution to consolidate contracts, search for provisions, and track contract events.

"OpenSource Contract Manager has provided us with 360 degree visibility in one easy-to-access repository. We can search for contracts and terms quickly saving time and headaches."

As the world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization, ETS (Educational Testing Services) required a more effective way to view and manage their contracts globally. ETS selected OpenSource Contract Manager to gain visibility and immediate access to thousands of contracts. In addition, the application enables the management of contract terms and obligations such as dates, events and milestones.

"We were impressed by OpenSource's service and product flexibility. The company was attentive to our needs, configured a fully functional evaluation version of the system for us, and supported our testing group through a lengthy evaluation process. Their attitude, in addition to the robustness and flexibility of the system, convinced us that this was the best overall offering for us."

The Portfolio Management Group at GE Capital Global Project and Structured Finance (GPSF) Formerly T&I, has recently introduced a text retrieval/hypertext system to aid in managing and accessing GPSF's highly structured financing deals. Text-retrieval technology has been available for some time and provides a mechanism for searching for words and phrases within text documents. Hypertext breathes new life into GPSF's electronic documents by linking textual information, making it possible to navigate quickly through large documents. The system utilizes Folio VIEWS software from Folio Inc., a subsidiary of Mead Data Central, Inc., as the main document viewer and full-text retrieval search engine. It then applies an "after-market" called "NuAccess" to create indices and hyperlinks for the documents. With NuAccess, GPSF can upload large and complex deals onto their Novell LAN, whereby employees then access the data on their individual client (desktop) PCs and portables under Microsoft Windows.

The benefits are numerous, including ability to master complex deals quickly, less chance of missing pertinent information items within a document, and reduction in legal costs-combined with faster litigation turnaround times. Based on current trends, GPSF expects to realize a cost savings in legal fees of between 10 and 20% during the first year. This translates into significant dollar savings compared to traditional paper oriented and word-processor based queries. According to senior vice president and manager of project investments, Mike Tzougrakis, "We are seeing improvements in areas we never expected. to structure a new deal, people can explore 10 or 20 other deals and pick and choose the parts that make the most sense. It is an evolution in better deal structuring.